LAST WORD

Bjorn Turnquist. Amy Root-Donle photo

Like a majority of nonprofit organizations which are small and struggling and survive on the love and guile of dedicated volunteers, there is always a dream of having a talented someone knock on the door and ask if they can help out.

If that talented someone can bring enthusiasm, savvy and very successful business experience and even more dedication to help take the organization to the next level, well, that's dream come true — especially if that talented someone doesn't mind being paid in the traditional way (as in no salary and no shortage of work).

Well, a talented someone did knock on the door of Portsmouth Community Radio and asked if he could help out. Radio workers couldn't be more surprised or happier: Meet Bjorn Turnquist, successful businessman-turned-general manager at Portsmouth Community Radio, or WSCA-LP, 106.1 FM on your very local dial.

Turnquist, a co-owner of multi-million dollar research and information company in Virginia, told me he decided before he got too old that it was time to leave the rat race of career and do, well, things "I love to do," he said.

Not everyone defines love this way — or can afford to. But after nine years at SNL Financial, which provides serious data mostly for Wall Street, Turnquist left the fast lane and found his way to Portsmouth where an old friend lived.

So far, so good. Within a few months he was helping out at the radio station, buying a house in the area, taking a job as assistant tennis coach for the club team at the University of New Hampshire and joining the board of a charter school in Barrington. He tells me he also finds time for yoga and improving his harmonica skills.

Let's face it, that's a rare depth of community involvement for someone who's been in the neighborhood less than a year. When I asked why — why in particular he wasn't taking his analyst and organizational talents and starting a new company or really making some big bucks, I found out it's all about the love.

As in he's very happy to have the financial freedom to do what he loves — in this case already doing what the television investment commercials tell us only retired folks do.

"As I got involved with the station, I saw the opportunity and potential, and after about a year of getting to know the station and it's people, I offered my services to the board," Turnquist said in e-mail and phone conversations. "I want to help increase our financing (through donations and grants) and create just a bit more professional and better organization."

That was music to the ears of the station's board members and his services were happily accepted. He didn't exactly have to follow in anyone's footsteps because they weren't many — a general manager has only been on board there for a total of six months in the three years the station has been on the air (and one of those was founding member Tim Stone who served for three months.)

What does Turnquist like about his current main volunteer position? How about what doesn't he like. In addition to setting a high standard for the position, he wants to bring some organizational savvy to the show.

"I've always had a grasp on processes and procedures and making organizations run smoothly and efficiently," said the New Jersey native and graduate of James Madison University. He explained that SNL Financial was a "very entrepreneurial company" that, given the insatiable demand for information in our information-based economy, sprouted new divisions regularly — and he was often given the task of going in and bringing order to chaos without killing the entrepreneurial spirit that made it thrive in the first place.

It's a delicate business tightrope to walk but one comfortable for him.

"I found WSCA and felt at home from the start," Turnquist explained of an organization with a $75,000 annual budget. His main goal is to expand business involvement. And he really wants to make the community aware that this little station that could on the FM dial is already an important part of the community because of what it does — namely bring an eclectic brand of music, programming and voices that are almost entirely extinct in the commercial radio homogenized jungle.

"The surprising thing is now that I listen to the station 24/7 and get to know all the programs and DJs, we've got a lot of hidden gems at the station and we are doing a very good job in delivering diverse community programming," Turnquist said.

And he really is living the good life, in part because of the area's gravitational pull on him. "There's such a strong sense of community in Portsmouth," Turnquist said. "Right now I am doing everything I love to do — music, tennis, and education."

And having much more fun it seems than those people in the commercials.